Francois Vleugels, the driving force behind the modernisation of Czech Unipetrol, is to become the new CEO of Czech chemical group Spolchemie. This is good news for the fellow whose abrupt departure from Unipetrol raised a few eyebrows.
I interviewed Vleugels at 2008's European Petrochemical Association (EPCA) meeting in Monte Carlo. He told me candidly about his frustration at the political interference in Unipetrol's parent group, OKN Orlen.
Showing posts with label unipetrol. Show all posts
Showing posts with label unipetrol. Show all posts
Friday, 28 August 2009
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
Unipetrol gets rebrand
The company is to be totally subsumed into PKN Orlen and known as Orlen Ceska Republika. This is the end of an era!This train will need to be repainted!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAdgz1F6gho
Thursday, 2 July 2009
Czech chemicals report highlights Reach issue
A report just out on the state of Czech Republic's chemical sector highlights the likely fallout from the president's decision last August not to comply with the EU chemical regulation Reach. Companies such as Unipetrol face a conundrum. Whilst they do not need to comply with Reach domestically, any exports will need to comply with the directive.
Should the country's biggest chemical group Unipetrol register as an exporter to the EU? How will it comply if there is no national authority with which it can register?
Here is an excerpt:
"In August 2008, President Václav Klaus over-ruled parliament and vetoed the European Commission regulation on the registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemical substances (REACH), claiming that there was no reason to toughen the regulatory system and that it undermined the competitiveness of the petrochemical industry. The lower hours of parliament can over-turn the President’s veto by a simple majority of sitting members. The current political environment is marked by uncertainty, with no coalition commanding an overall majority in parliament. Consequently, it is unclear whether Klaus’s veto will be upheld, although there is a probability that parliament will over-turn his decision as it had already approved REACH. The uncertainty is unlikely to cause a significant problem to the Czech Republic’s petrochemicals business environment as any potential investor is likely to conform to REACH."
The report also highlights the problem of the country's almost complete reliance on Russian oil for its refineries and chemicals industry. Supplies were cut last year forcing Unipetrol to import via a very circuitous route.
"The Czech Republic’s dependence on imported oil supplies was demonstrated in July 2008 when Russian oil supply to the Czech Republic was drastically cut, which Russia claimed was due to technical problems, an explanation Unipetrol appeared to accept. Although it would not be technically difficult to find an alternative to Russian oil, logistical costs of using alternative pipeline routes or overland would raise raw material prices and make the Czech petrochemical sector uncompetitive."
Should the country's biggest chemical group Unipetrol register as an exporter to the EU? How will it comply if there is no national authority with which it can register?
Here is an excerpt:
"In August 2008, President Václav Klaus over-ruled parliament and vetoed the European Commission regulation on the registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemical substances (REACH), claiming that there was no reason to toughen the regulatory system and that it undermined the competitiveness of the petrochemical industry. The lower hours of parliament can over-turn the President’s veto by a simple majority of sitting members. The current political environment is marked by uncertainty, with no coalition commanding an overall majority in parliament. Consequently, it is unclear whether Klaus’s veto will be upheld, although there is a probability that parliament will over-turn his decision as it had already approved REACH. The uncertainty is unlikely to cause a significant problem to the Czech Republic’s petrochemicals business environment as any potential investor is likely to conform to REACH."
The report also highlights the problem of the country's almost complete reliance on Russian oil for its refineries and chemicals industry. Supplies were cut last year forcing Unipetrol to import via a very circuitous route.
"The Czech Republic’s dependence on imported oil supplies was demonstrated in July 2008 when Russian oil supply to the Czech Republic was drastically cut, which Russia claimed was due to technical problems, an explanation Unipetrol appeared to accept. Although it would not be technically difficult to find an alternative to Russian oil, logistical costs of using alternative pipeline routes or overland would raise raw material prices and make the Czech petrochemical sector uncompetitive."
Tuesday, 16 June 2009
Stormy meeting for Unipetrol?
Unipetrol, part of Poland's PKN Orlen, has had a tough time of it in recent months. Political interference at head office in Poland means every time there is a change of government in Poland, a new set of managers are appointed at Orlen.
This contributed to the resignation of Unipetrol's CEO, Francois Vleugels, earlier this year. He had been busy modernising the group, introducing current best practice in business planning and logistics.
I met Vleugels at EPCA last year and was impressed with the energy he was giving to bringing Unipetrol up to scratch.
Q1 results were pretty disastrous for the group which posted a net loss of koruna (Kc)190.3m ($9.6m/€7m) in the first quarter of the year as sales sharply declined. Unipetrol reversed the K389.5m profits it made in January-March 2008. Revenue for the first three months of this year declined 34.4% year on year to Kc14.5bn.
June 24 Unipetrol holds its annual shareholders' meeting - should be interesting. Then on July 21 Unipetrol is due to present a trading statement for the second quarter.
This contributed to the resignation of Unipetrol's CEO, Francois Vleugels, earlier this year. He had been busy modernising the group, introducing current best practice in business planning and logistics.
I met Vleugels at EPCA last year and was impressed with the energy he was giving to bringing Unipetrol up to scratch.
Q1 results were pretty disastrous for the group which posted a net loss of koruna (Kc)190.3m ($9.6m/€7m) in the first quarter of the year as sales sharply declined. Unipetrol reversed the K389.5m profits it made in January-March 2008. Revenue for the first three months of this year declined 34.4% year on year to Kc14.5bn.
June 24 Unipetrol holds its annual shareholders' meeting - should be interesting. Then on July 21 Unipetrol is due to present a trading statement for the second quarter.
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